"When I first met my husband in 2008, our travel histories were one of the first things we discussed. We had both been out of the USA before and wanted to see more of the world. Coincidentally, New Zealand was at the top of both our lists of places we'd like to visit most, but it was something we only dreamt about. Four and a half years later, after moving in together, we decided to make our dream come true so we began saving for the dream trip to New Zealand. In January 2014, we booked our trip! Getting married wasn't part of the initial agenda, until a month later when he proposed. We knew we didn't want a big, fancy wedding, that just wasn't us. When I brought up the idea of eloping on our vacation, he wasn't too keen on it. So I began my search for a celebrant and location to prove to him it would be worth it, how many Americans can say they got married in New Zealand?! I knew I couldn't squeeze the ceremony into any of the days we had stuff planned on, so I opted for the morning we were to fly home. Hagley Park and the Christchurch Botanical Gardens were close to the hotel we would be staying in the night before. Based on the pictures, I saw, I knew he would like both of them! Then I was worried I wouldn't be able to find anyone willing to do a wedding ceremony at 9am on a Friday...until I found Julie. She happily agreed and was very pleasant about it!Julie wrote up the most perfect ceremony for us that I showed to him and he warmed up to my idea. We worked all the details out with Julie, submitted our marriage license application then began counting down the days! We spent 2 weeks traveling from Auckland to Christchurch, visiting various LOTR themed locations and doing lots of hiking. The country is absolutely gorgeous. From the rolling hills on the North Island to the vast mountains on the South Island, pure beauty. We didn't meet Julie until the morning of our ceremony and we didn't get to visit the Botanical Gardens either! We trusted Julie's assurance that we had chosen a good location and she couldn't have been more right. We found a spot next to a quiet creek and it was perfect! Julie was perfect! Our ceremony was perfect! We went on our dream vacation and started on a new adventure in our lives all in New Zealand. We couldn't be happier! We are forever grateful to Julie for making our big day so special and we highly recommend her to anyone looking to elope or have a big wedding in the Christchurch area. And we recommend to anyone that has never been to New Zealand to go there as well! With Heartfelt Thanks, Brad & Jen Christensen."

Thank you for your kind words Eva Richardson. It was indeed a special day and I was delighted that yur niece and Brad entrusted me with the responsibility of making it special.

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Laura Janca

15/4/2014 01:14:25 pm

This was one of your best ideas yet Jen! Glad Brad was able to see how awesome it would be to say "Yeah, we got married in New Zealand!"
Thank you Julie for helping them to top off a wonderful vacation by turning it into a honeymoon!

Thank you Laura Janca - I was delighted that they wanted to marry in New Zealand - a very easy way to get married :)

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Cheryl Janca

18/4/2014 10:26:37 pm

Oh my!!! What a beautiful way to end/start your vacation/life together. The pictures are absolutely AMAZING!!! I am so glad that my daughter found the love of her life in Brad and they were able to take this vacation and turn it into a new life together as man & wife....words cannot express how HAPPY I am.
Thank you Julie for conducting their "perfect" ceremony...

A proud & happy mom

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Wedding Blog

I love being able to write a regular wedding blog.

It is with great pleasure I share many ideas and suggestions in what I hope will be a weekly blog.